Sal Vantu
Sal Vantu, founder and "chairman" of the Foundation, used to run a small cantina before his wife vanished. In his search for her, he delved deeper and deeper into the criminal underworld, eventually heading his own criminal empire. History Early Life Sal Vantu was a regular, if somewhat smooth-looking, man who ran a popular cantina on Corellia before the Sith Empire invaded. It was there that he met Aela, the Twi'lek proprietor of the high-class brothel-ship "Leth Daesha," meaning "Red Queen". They fell in love quickly and were married within a year. Aela remained working on the brothel-ship, but took less of a personal role in its transactions, despite the objections of Sal's somewhat-conservative family. Sal himself didn't mind, knowing he was loved. Aela's Disappearance Aela Vantu went missing just months after the marriage. Sal's friends and family believed this to be inevitable, thinking that a "whore like her" would never settle down. Sal organized search parties, regardless. A week after her disappearance, a body was identified as Aela. Sal's family and friends were supportive in their own way, but again thought it inevitable. The story they told themselves when they thought Sal wasn't listen was: "She ran off with some stranger, he murdered her. It's typical for prostitutes." Infuriated, Sal disowned them and went searching for Aela again, refusing to allow the possibility that she was gone so soon. It wasn't long before all legal avenues of investigation were spent. Descent Sal quickly ended up relying on less legal methods to look for his wife. Slowly but surely, he delved deeper and deeper into the criminal underworld. A decade passed, and Sal found looking for Aela had long since stopped being his priority, having fallen in love with money and power instead. Sal found himself at the head of a small - but growing - crime family, doing whatever they could to make money and whatever they wanted during time off. Realizing that operating on both sides of the law had more benefits than risks, Sal created a legitimate business to mask his crime family. Naming it the Foundation, a corporation with a wide variety of interests in all manner of business endeavors, Sal used it to quickly bring in legal money as well as open new markets to his family. His success in both areas allowed him to work with both the Republic and various criminal organizations, including the Hutts and the Exchange. Careful not to infringe on the territories or interests of his competitors until he could easily destroy or absorb their groups, Sal managed to keep from being targeted by major criminal organizations; using his corporate connections to avoid taxes and bribe officials and investigators, he kept his businesses from being shut down by planetary and galactic governments. Secret Project Despite his fall into corruption, Sal never fully gave up his search for Aela. He now uses his connections and money to further that search, so far to no avail. "Friends" Sal has long since stopped feeling most things aside from pride, anger, and greed, but has several close allies whom he's given high-ranking positions within the Foundation. Endari Endari is an Echani and has been in Sal's organization for the longest. Starting as a pickpocket and informant for Sal at age 10, he's become Sal's bodyguard and the Chief Executive Officer of the Foundation at the age of thirty. This is the most playful relationship Sal has, with Endari's light mockery often being answered with light smacks to the back of the head. Sal calls Endari "Geezer" because of his white hair. Cassior Cassior is a fallen Sith Pureblood Jedi who made his living as a master thief. His most lucrative heist happened to foil Sal's own attempts at stealing the treasure he'd snagged, and Sal sent a bounty hunter after him to capture him. Bringing Cassior to his sky palace on Nar Shadaa. There, realizing the talented rogue could make him a great profit, Sal befriended and hired Cassior. He now acts as Sal's Chief Operations Officer. Jaevri Sadek Jaevri Sadek is a self-exiled Twi'lek princess who gave up her royal setting for a life of excitement and adventure. Running into trouble with two thugs at a card table in one of Sal's cantinas, he quickly took her under his wing as a protege. As a tech genius, she's become Sal's Chief Technology Officer. Though he'll never admit it, she looks like a young Aela and he thinks of her as a daughter. Nimat TBD Personality Sal is a cold-hearted and paranoid man, willing to risk and even take the lives of huge numbers of strangers in order to ensure his success and profit. If he welcomes a person into the Foundation, however, he will extend that ruthless sense of self-preservation to include them. While he no longer values much of anything above money, he still hopes that he'll be able to find Aela one day. Sayings "If the Force has a will of its own, so does my gun. Fair warning - it doesn't like you." - Sal to a Jedi during a debate on the nature of the Force. Sal likes to think he has wisdom to impart on the younger generations of ne'er-do-wells. Among the tidbits he shares are: * Life is a joke. Make sure you're in a position to find it funny. * Sometimes your enemies know you better than your friends. * The best markets are the ones where there is no competition. Appearance Sal is a little over 60 years old, but doesn't look a day over 40 despite his bright white hair. His face is smooth and fair, if often somewhat scruffy, and his hair is always well-groomed and slicked back. He typically dresses well, though he does sometimes wear more open clothing when at his personal retreat. He also possesses a wide range of disguises that he uses to pass unnoticed most anywhere in the galaxy, such as Imperial and Republic soldiers, spies, and a Mandalorian.